Pete Hegseth Calls Plan to Livestream Fort Hood Terrorist’s Execution a ‘No-Brainer’

The military plans to livestream the execution of Nidal Hasan, the former Army major convicted in the 2009 Fort Hood massacre, when he faces a firing squad on December 3. A Pentagon official confirmed the plan, according to a report CBS News published on Thursday, October 8.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth discussed the execution during an October 8 appearance on Real America’s Voice.

“Execution by firing squad. Army major betrays his country, radical Islamist kills a bunch of Americans at Fort Hood, of course we’re going to do it at Fort Hood. We’re going to do it on a Thursday and we’re going to do it at 1 o’clock, which is when he did it,” Hegseth, 46, said during the interview, calling the decision a “no-brainer.”

“We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public — because people need to understand that there’s serious consequences for these types of things,” Hegseth added on Real America’s Voice.

Capital punishment in the United States has typically been carried out away from public view, with attendance limited to a select group of witnesses. The country’s last known public execution took place in Kentucky in 1936, when an estimated 20,000 people gathered to watch a hanging, according to the report.

Geoffrey Corn, a Texas Tech University law professor and former Army lawyer, told CBS News the plan “raises significant moral questions, above and beyond the questions related to the death penalty generally.”

“In short, turning the execution of such a penalty into some type of public spectacle echoes of the past we seem to have put behind us,” he added.

Hasan, 56, a former Army psychiatrist, was convicted at a 2013 court-martial of murdering 13 people and wounding more than 30 others. He admitted at trial that he was responsible, claiming he acted to protect Islamic insurgents from U.S. forces, per the outlet.

If carried out, it would be the military’s first execution of an American service member since 1961, when a soldier was hanged for the sexual assault and attempted murder of an 11-year-old girl, the outlet reported. It would also be the first military firing squad since Pvt. Eddie Slovik was executed for desertion in 1945.

As the National Enquirer previously reported, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell announced the plan on Monday, October 5, via a post on X. He wrote that Hegseth “has recommended — and President Donald J. Trump has approved — death by U.S. Army firing squad for convicted terrorist Nidal Malik Hasan.”

“Judgement day for Hasan has finally come,” Parnell, 45, wrote in his post.